PaleOMG's Chicken Bacon Bowl

Original recipe here.

I made mine pretty well the same was as the original PaleOMG recipe, but I cut my bacon into pieces and cooked it with onions and mushrooms. For the assembly, I mashed the sweet potato slightly with a fork, placed it in a bowl with a handful of spinach, then topped it with the bacon & mushroom mixture and a chicken thigh. To finish it off, I added a bit of fresh cracked pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

The original recipe is scaled for one serving but I made mine for 4 servings using 4 chicken thighs, 1 large sweet potato cut into quarters and 4 slices of bacon. It worked out fabulous as left overs for lunch.

Banana Paleo "Pancakes" with Fruit Compote

This is a quick and easy breakfast, dessert or snack that tastes surprisingly good too! The basic recipe has been all over the internet (hello, Pinterest) but I tweaked it a bit.

Makes 4-5 pancakes

2 very ripe bananas, peeled
2 eggs
pinch of pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice or spice blend of your choice
pinch salt

1. Add banana to a bowl and mash until smooth. Add in eggs and spices. Whisk vigorously until well mixed. Mixture will be slightly runny - more like crepe batter than pancake batter.

2. Heat non stick pan over medium heat. Add a bit of coconut oil. OIL IS NECESSARY, even with non-stick pan.

3. Cook just like a pancake! Pour approximately 1/4 cup batter per portion into pan, cook until top starts to bubble, flip, cook another couple minutes. Voila!

Fruit Compote

1 cup fresh or frozen fruit mixture (should include either apples or strawberries). I used a frozen blend of strawberries, blueberries and peaches.
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tablespoon water

1. Add everything to a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat.

2. With the back of a spoon, mash the fruit to break it up. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer until it starts to thicken. Leave to simmer while you cook your pancakes. Pour into a bowl and serve with pancakes!

Apples and strawberries have natural pectin which will cause the compote juices to thicken slightly.

Choco Coconut Almont Banana Smoothie

Chocolate! Coconut! Almond! Banana! In a smoothie! This is my go-to quick breakfast of late, but it could also double as a dessert!

Makes 1 Super Delicious Smoothie

1 banana
1 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon almond butter
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 scoop unsweetened protein powder (optional)
1 teaspoon flax seed meal (optional)

For breakfast smoothie, I include the protein powder and flax. For dessert smoothie, I omit those and include the vanilla.

1. Add all ingredients to a blender and mix on high until well blended. For an icy treat, add 4-5 ice cubes to the blender.

Thai Chicken and Cashew Nuts

This is one of my ultimate favourite Thai dishes. The chicken recipe is adapted from Six Sister's Stuff. The chicken is cooked in a slow cooker but you could very easily adapt the recipe to be straight stir-fry. You can also omit the chicken to make a delicious Thai vegan stir fry.

Serves 2-4

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce or Bragg's Aminos
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons tomato paste or ketchup
1 tablespoon sucanat
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or Thai chili paste
1/2 cup water
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup whole cashews
2 green onions, chopped
handful of cilantro, rough chopped

1. Trim fat off chicken and place in slow cooker.

2. In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, vinegar, tomato paste, sucanat, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and water. Pour sauce over chicken.

3. Cook on low for 3 hours for breasts and 3 1/2 to 4 hours for thighs.

4. Once chicken is cooked, remove from slow cooker and set on a plate to cool slightly. Once cooled, roughly chop chicken into cubes. Reserve sauce.

5. In a walk over medium heart, stir-fry onions and peppers for 2-3 minutes. Pour in sauce from the slow cooker and bring to a boil to reduce slightly. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.

6. Add chicken and cashews to wok and mix together. Remove from heat and mix in green onion and cilantro. Serve immediately with rice or quinoa. If you aren't serving immediately, do not add the cilantro until just before serving.

If you plan to modify the recipe so it is not a slow cooker recipe, I would cut the chicken into small pieces and stir fry it in a small amount of sesame oil. Once chicken is browned, remove from wok and set aside, then begin with step five.

To make this recipe vegan, omit the chicken and use extra veggies or tofu in the stir fry (step five).

Green Smoothies

I was thinking of buying a juicer so I could drink my vegetables. I even had a juicer all picked out and ready to buy. Then I came across Tera Warner's Green Smoothie Challenge. Instead of juicing her veggies, Tera just blends them up into what she affectionately calls "lawn mower pulp". No expensive, messy juicer required. And by blending your veggies instead of juicing, you keep all that wonderful fiber!

For green smoothie newbies, Tara recommends the following green concoction:

Green Smoothie for Newbies

1 cup water
1 banana
1 handful spinach

Add water and banana to blender and blend until smooth. Add in spinach and blend together.

Instead of water, I had some Green Goodness juicer from Bolthouse Farms. It added a bit of extra sweetness and made the spinach much more palatable.

My next green smoothie experiment included even more greens:

Orange, Red and Green All Over

1/2 cup carrot juice (or carrot/fruit blend)
1/2 cup water
2-3 strawberries
1 handful spinach leaves
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 handful fresh parsley leaves

Add liquid and strawberries to blender and mix well. Add in spinach, parsley and celery and blend on high until everything is pulverized and juicy green!

Next up I'm going to try kale. I'm not sure how that one will go but I'm willing to try it out!

Guest Post - Very Peach Cobbler

My cousin Tobe put together a great summer peach cobbler that is low in added sugar and gluten free. She was so thrilled with the results she wanted to share with my readers (if there are any of you left out there!). She even included step by step photos. Here is Tobe's post:

I found some great Organic peaches at Costco and decided to make a cobbler. I have trying to cut down on my sugar and carb intake, so I surfed the web trying to find recipes that had limited sugar and no flour. I couldn't find a single recipe that used exactly what I wanted, so I decided to make my own recipe. Its pretty forgiving so you can change things up to suit your own tastes. If you don't have Stevia, you can use agave syrup or honey. If you don't have coconut oil, you could use butter or Earth's Balance.

Ingredients:

Fruit:
6 cups chopped, fresh organic peaches
10 packets of Stevia
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp good Bourbon such as Makers Mark (optional)
Taste your fruit and determine its sweetness. Stevia is 30 times sweeter than sugar. You could use up to 20 packages in this recipe.

Topping:
4 eggs or equal amount Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup of melted Coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup of shredded coconut or nuts of your choice
2 Tbsp of Earth's Balance

Directions:

Peel the skins off your peaches. Cut up into bite size pieces.

Add Bourbon to the chopped peaches.

Sprinkle fruit with Stevia and cornstarch. Gently fold together until Stevia and cornstarch have dissolved.

Pour your fruit into a 13 x 9 baking dish and set aside.

Mix melted coconut oil and eggs together.

Pour in coconut flour and add coconut milk. Mix until you have a batter like consistency.

Top the fruit with batter. If you find you don't have enough batter to cover the fruit, make a second batch of the topping. Dot the top of the batter with Earth's Best/Earth Balance.

Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

Serve with your ice cream, frozen yogurt or coconut milk ice cream.

Tuna Salad Rice Cake

Today's lunch... tuna on a rice cake topped with sprouts. Later on I added some cheddar cheese and made a tuna rice cake melt. Delicious!

- 1 can sustainably caught tuna (Raincoast Trading is the best!)
- 1 tbsp greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- salt & pepper to taste
- any additional mix-ins to suit your fancy (chopped onion, chives, green onion, celery, pickle etc.) I like my tuna plain.
- 2 plain, unsalted brown rice cakes
- Any sprouts of your choice. I used alfalfa but pea shoots and broccoli sprouts are great too.

1. Drain tuna well and add to a medium bowl.

2. Mix in yogurt, sour cream, salt and pepper and any other additions you've chosen. Stir together to mix well.

3. Top each rice cake with about 2 tablespoons of tuna mixture and spread to coat the top evenly.

4. Place sprouts on top of tuna.

5. Add thin sliced cheddar cheese, if desired, and place in toaster oven until slightly melted.

Strawberry Chocolate Almond Milk

The other day I experimented by making homemade almond milk. I looked through a few of my clean eating & raw food cookbooks and browsed online before settling on this recipe from Tasty Kitchen, mostly because it included photographs with step by step instructions. The recipe calls for the addition of vanilla and honey, but I opted to omit those ingredients as I prefer using plain, unsweetened almond milk.

The process was simple enough. Soak the almonds, add them to food processor with water and blend, strain through cheesecloth (I used mesh jelly bags from my canning supplies). Overall I found the experience messy and not really worth the time and effort. Homemade is less expensive than store bought (1 cup of almonds yields approximately 1 litre of almond milk), but the ease and convenience of store bought just cannot be beat.

If you do give homemade a try, be sure to keep the resulting almond meal. Many people throw the byproduct of homemade nut milk production away but almond meal is very nutritious and useful in its own way. You can add it to baking, toss on salads, serve over yogurt, mix in with oatmeal or use it any number of different ways.

With an abundance of homemade almond milk on hand (another downfall - it only lasts a few days), this morning I mixed up a concoction using fresh local strawberries. It was quite refreshing and perfect for my post run pick-me-up.

Strawberry Chocolate Almond Milk (serves 2)

- 2 cups almond milk
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup fresh, whole strawberries, stems removed
- 1/2 tbsp agave syrup (optional)

1. Add everything to a blender and blend on high until mixed.

2. Pour into glasses and serve immediately

Baked Egg Muffins

In my ongoing quest to be more prepared and have meals made ahead, I spent this morning in the kitchen. Along with making a batch of Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Muffins, I also made egg muffins... and not the McDonald"s variety. These "muffins" are actually just eggs and chopped veggies, mixed together, then baked in muffin tins. The resulting egg muffins are great for "grab & go" breakfasts and even better for make-ahead brunches.

Baked Egg Muffins - Makes 12

- 8 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk (any type - I used almond)
- 1/2 red pepper, minced
- 1/4 red onion, minced
- 1/2 tomato, diced
- handful of fresh parsley, chopped (yield's about 2-3 tbsp)
- salt & pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and milk.

3. Stir in veggies, parsley, salt & pepper and mix well.

4. Spoon mixture into muffin tins (approximately 2 oz liquid per cup).

5. Bake in pre-heated oven for 15-20 mins until eggs are set.

Can be served immediately, left to cool, or refrigerated for later use.

Experiment with other mix-in's. Mushrooms, crumbled bacon or sausage, feta or cheddar cheese... the possibilities really are endless.

Raw Vegan Coconut Oil Chocolate

I got this idea and recipe from a co-worker. Homemade raw, vegan chocolate is a great substitution for a expensive dark chocolate bars I usually have on hand. When I have a craving, I enjoy one or two pieces and that is usually enough to satisfy the chocolate monster within. The cocoa powder has a slightly bitter after-taste, which you can mitigate by adding more sweetener. I don't mind the bitter taste and find it's actually beneficial as it stops me from over indulging!

Raw Vegan Coconut Oil Chocolate

- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, melted slightly if solid
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp agave nectar
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional)
- 1/4 cup macadamia nuts, whole or chopped (optional)
- 2 tbsp dried cranberries (optional)

1. Line a small, shallow dish, pan or tray with parchment or waxed paper. A larger size pan will produce thinner bark type chocolate. A smaller pan will produce a thicker bar type chocolate. You may also have to make more than one batch to fill your tray. I usually make two batches at once, which fills a 8" x 5" tray perfectly.

2. Add coconut oil, cocoa powder, vanilla and agave to a small bowl and whisk until well blended and smooth.

3. Add in coconut, macadamia nuts and cranberries. Stir together.

4. Pour mixture into lined dish. Using a spatula, spread mixture around to evenly coat the pan.

5. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. When set, remove from fridge and break into chunks.

6. Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated when not in use. Coconut oil has a low melting point so if you leave your chocolate out, you will end up with a big mess!

This recipe is incredibly versatile. The only required ingredients are coconut oil and cocoa powder. Other than that, you are free to experiment and add in or remove whatever you'd like. You can also make bonbons by using mini muffin tins or make chocolate bars by scoring the chocolate after it has set slightly, then cutting it into bars when completely set.

Smoothie of the Day - Carrot Banana Blueberry

Part of my regular routine when I'm working is a morning smoothie. Everyday I mix up something different based on what I have on hand. This is what I came up with today:

Carrot Banana Blueberry Smoothie:

- 1/4 cup carrot juice
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 whole banana, broken into pieces
- 2 tbsp plain cultured coconut (a.k.a. coconut yogurt)
- 1 tsp fiber supplement

Toss everything in a blender and blend until smooth! The orange from the carrot juice mixed with the blueberries makes a strange dark purplish-brown colour. It doesn't look too appetizing but it tastes just fine.

Quick Dinner - Vegan Burger

When I'm on the go and don't have time to cook, or when it's too hot outside to even consider turning on the stove, I throw together a burger. It's so quick and easy to make, I quite literally, throw it all together and eat in about 5 minutes.

Take two patties of your favourite veggie burger. You could also use meat patties if you wish. Heat patties as per package directions. Top one patty with whatever condiments suit your fancy. I used ketchup, mustard, red onion, tomato, spinach and spicy dill pickles. Top it off with the other patty.

There you have it. An easy, quick and tasty meal. Amy's Gluten Free Sonoma Veggie Burger's are gluten, soy and dairy free and work great for this. If you are okay with eating soy and gluten you can also try Yves Veggie Burgers. They are good also.

The only complaint about this concoction is the mess! This one requires a knife and fork. :)

Tropical BBQ Chicken & Mango Salsa

Excuse the crappy cell phone picture.

Trying to eat more protein and veggies can be very boring, especially when one is too busy to get creative and there isn't much time to prepare a meal. This recipe is a modified version of the "Caribbean Chicken" recipe from The Eat Clean Diet: Recharged. It's very tasty, easy to make and can be served in many ways. I cook a few chicken breasts at a time and save them for lunches and even snacks throughout the week.

Ingredients:

- 1 orange

- 1 lime

- 1 tbsp agave nectar

- 1 tbsp sucanat

- 1 tbsp minced ginger

- 4 gloves garlic, minced

- pinch ground cinnamon

- pinch ground nutmeg

- 1 tsp hot sauce of your choice

- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

- 1 tbsp ketchup

Directions:

1. Remove the zest from the lime and orange, setting aside for later use, then juice each fruit.

2. Add juice, agave, sucanat, ginger, garlic, cinnamon and nutmeg to a jar and shake well.

3. Place chicken in a shallow dish. Pour marinade over top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

4. When ready to cook, remove from marinade and place chicken in grill pan or over BBQ until cooked through.

5. While chicken is cooking, pour marinade into a small sauce pan with citrus zest and heat over medium-high heat. Boil until sauce has reduced slightly. Lower heat and add ketchup. Bring to a boil again and boil for 5 minutes.

6. Pour sauce through a fine mesh strainer, using the back of a spatula to squeeze out the liquid. Discard the solids.

7. Once chicken is cooked, remove from grill and baste with the strained sauce.

Eat hot off the grill topped with mango salsa and grilled veggies, or slice and serve warm or cold over spinach salad. Top your salad with the left over Tropical BBQ sauce.

For an easy Mango Salsa, chop 1 fresh mango, 1/2 a small red onion and 1 handful of fresh cilantro. Toss together in a bowl with lime juice, salt, pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes or hot sauce.

New(ish) Food Outlook - Paleo Eating

Here I am, back with more excuses! In the six months since I've been absent from my blog, I bought a house, moved and started another job. Lots of changes and very busy.



My food and diet profile has also changed. While I am still into healthy, wholesome, natural, fresh, local etc. etc., I am also more interested in the Paleo way of eating. The Paleo diet is grain free, sugar free, gluten free and dairy free. It is based around the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of our paleolithic ancestors and is sometimes referred to as the "Caveman diet". Less emphasis on grains and dairy and more emphasis on plants and animals. As always, mine is a modified approach, and I have not eliminated anything completely from my diet. Instead, I am making a concerted effort to use alternative ingredients. Instead of cow's milk and yogurt, I have been enjoying almond milk and cultured coconut milk (coconut yogurt) in my daily smoothie. Instead of cheese and crackers for snacks I have fruit, veggies, hard boiled eggs or some deli meat. I've upped my protein intake through lean meats, poultry, fish and eggs, and lowered my refined carb intake by greatly reducing my intake of grains, breads, pasta and other related items. I have really started focusing and increased my efforts over the last couple weeks so there have been no physical changes yet, but I hope to use the blog to post some of the new recipes I've been enjoying.

If you are interested in the Paleo way of eating, do a Google search on "Paleo Diet". One blog I find particularly interesting and helpful is Rubies and Radishes. The author, Arsy, has written some very informative posts on the topic. As well, this article from Newsweek magazine may be of interest.

Why the Campaign to Stop America's Obesity Crisis Keeps Failing, in Newsweek, via The Daily Beast.

I will be back soon with a delicious Tropical BBQ Chicken recipe that is great on its own or in a salad.

If you have any tips on Paleo eating or any great recipes, let me know.

My Favourite Beverages

I don't drink soda pop, I don't often drink juice and I hate plain water. What's a girl to do? Here are some of my go-to tricks for quenching my thirst.

Water with Cucumber Slices
I first fell in love with cucumber flavoured water while dining at my favourite local Thai restaurant. It's such a simple and refreshing twist on plain old tap water. And when the water is done, you can still eat the cucumbers! Try it with fresh mint leaves too.

Soda Water with Fresh Muddled Lime & Soda Water with Cranberry Juice
These are my "cocktails". Soda & lime is a staple at home and soda with a splash of cranberry juice is my "going out" treat. To kick it up a bit I occasionally add fresh mint. Make sure your soda water is sodium free. In a pinch Perrier Lime is tasty too.

Clean Iced Tea
Fresh brewed tea, lemon slices and a bit of agave. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Chocolate Peppermint Tea
For an evening treat, I brew a cup of peppermint tea (which aids in digestion) and add a teaspoon of Torani Sugar Free White Chocolate Syrup. Chocolate and peppermint - it's dessert in a mug!

I also drink a lot of tea at home. My favourites are Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice, Twinning's Lemon & Ginger and when I'm sick, Traditional Medicinals Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat.

What are your favourite beverage alternatives?

Butternut Squash Apple Sage Soup

This is almost identical to my Butternut Squash Apple Bacon Soup but instead of bacon, I added fresh sage. The sage made it a completely different soup - but still mega delicious. I served the soup in verrine glasses as a Thanksgiving appetizer. My Grandmother was quite impressed!

1 1/2 lb butternut squash, halved and seeded
2 onions, quartered
2 cloves garlic
2 medium baking apples, quartered
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage
4 tsp olive oil
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp honey
salt and pepper
4-5 fresh sage leaves

1. Peel and cut squash into large,1 1/2 inch cubes. Place cubes into a roasting pan. Add onion, and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Toss to coat. Roast for 425 degrees for 30 minutes until squash is tender. Half way through roasting, add apples to pan, toss everything together and place back in the oven to finish roasting.

2. Peel roasted apples (skins should slip off easily). Add apple, squash, onion, garlic and sage to a food processor.

3. Heat the roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 cup vegetable broth, and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits from the roasted vegetables. Add broth to food processor with the vegetables. Blend everything together until smooth. Add honey and pulse to blend together.

4. Add vegetable puree, the rest of the vegetable broth, 1 cup water, and a pinch each of salt and pepper to a large pot. Add whole fresh sage leaves. Bring to boil then simmer on low for 10 minutes. Remove whole sage leaves before serving. Garnish with sour cream and fresh sage leaves.

Leftover Turkey Rice Soup

Wondering what to do with your left over turkey? The easiest thing to do is make soup! Remember back in October when we brined and roasted a chicken then made stock with the carcass? No? Well, go here and refresh your memory. If you're not up to making your own stock but still want to make soup, stay here and let's continue.

Ingredients:

8 cups chicken, turkey or vegetable stock.
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 tbsp parsley flakes (and any additional seasonings you like)
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup rice, cooked (any variety)
2 cups cooked turkey, chopped (great way to use up all that dark meat no one eats!)

1. Add stock to a large pot and bring to a boil. Add carrot, celery, chickpeas, tomato, parsley and salt & pepper. Simmer on medium-low for 15 minutes.

2. Add rice and turkey. Simmer for another 15 minutes.

Pumpkin Trifle

Hello! I'm back! Are you shocked? I did not abandon my blog. Just been taking a hiatus. To be quite honest I haven't even been cooking all that much the last six months. It's quite sad and pathetic actually. I hope to post a few recipes over the next month, then I will be taking another short break while I move houses.

This lovely holiday dessert recipe comes from my cousin. I made individual portions for Thanksgiving and it was a huge success. There is nothing healthy or natural about this recipe. It's the holidays... let's live a little!

The base of my trifle is spice cake. If you live in the USA you can buy packages of Gingerbread mix, which is what the original recipe called for. In my area of Canada all we have available is Spice Cake mix and it did the trick just fine!



Pumpkin Trifle

- (USA) 2 (14oz) packages gingerbread mix or(Canada) 1 box Spice Cake mix (Duncan Hines - available at Save On Foods)
- 1 large box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 30oz can pumpkin pie filling
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 tsp ground cardamom, cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 12oz container Cool Whip, thawed
- 1/2 cup crushed ginger snaps, optional

1. Bake gingerbread mix or spice cake mix according to package directions. Cool completely.

2. Meanwhile, prepare pudding. Stir in pumpkin pie filling, brown sugar and spices.

3. Crumble half the gingerbread or spice cake into a large trifle bowl, punch bowl or other pretty glass bowl*. Pour half the pudding mixture over top, then add a layer of Cool Whip. Repeat with remaining cake, pudding and Cool Whip. Sprinkle crushed ginger snaps on top to garnish.

4. Refrigerate overnight.

*You could also use individual dessert bowls as I did. Portion the ingredients according to the number of servings you require and layer according to directions.

Enjoy!

Peach Kombucha Smoothie

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that is thought to have similar health benefits as Kefir and other cultured foods. It has been served for centuries in Europe and Asia, where it is considered a health tonic. Read more about Kombucha here.

I have read much about this supposed wonder drink but I had yet to try it myself. I bought two bottles ($3.49 each!) and set about taste testing.

Kombucha is, in a word, bad. It smells like vinegar and tastes about the same. But that didn't deter me. Instead of drinking it straight up, I did what I do with Kefir and poured it into a blender to make a smoothie. The results were pretty darn tasty. This particular smoothie is vegan but you could add a bit of greek yogourt if you wanted. I added a bit of flax seed meal to boost the fibre.

Peach Kombucha Smoothie

Serves 2

- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup Kombucha (plain or peach flavour)
- 2 whole fresh peaches, skin on, sliced or 2 cups frozen peach segments or combination of fresh & frozen peaches to equal 2 cups
- add ins of your choice, about 2 teaspoons (flax meal, chia, protein powder, wheat germ etc)
- 1 cup ice

1. Add the first 4 ingredients to a blender and blend well.

2. Add ice and blend again to crush. Pour into two tall glasses.

Food Blogging & Food Photography Tips

Last week, Danica from Danica's Daily was live tweeting from the BlogHerFood Convention in Atlanta Georgia. Danica tweeted loads of useful tips and tricks on food photography and food styling as well as copyright and recipe etiquette. Lindsay from Love & Olive Oil was also there and tweeted some great tips on recipe development and blog design. I enjoyed their tweets so much, I must have "favourited" at least a dozen from each lovely lady.

Here are my favourite tips from Danica (tweets condensed into paragraphs):

On Food Photography:

"A tripod is the best inexpensive tool you can get for great food photography. DSL users - If you can only buy one lens make it a zoom Tamron 28-75 mm. Shoot by a window, outside or in dark shade. Avoid direct sunlight. Use an old sheet/table cloth or parchment paper to hang over the window if it has harsh direct sunlight. In low light, use a tripod."

On Food Styling and Props:

"Keep your dishes simple. Go for smaller, white, matte dishes with no designs. Keep your props simple and use them over again... mix it up with the food, napkins etc. If you have $25 to spend on photography, buy foam core, white sheet/table cloth, plain white plate, plain white bowl and a clear drinking glass." Tip from Twitter user FrenchFoodieMom: "When adding garnishes to your food pictures, make it like it fell there."

For the live blog notes from the 'Simple, Affordable Tools, Techniques and Accessories to Improve your Food Photography' seminar, go here.

On Crediting:

"Adapting is recipe specific, meaning you saw a specific recipe in a book/online and you change some ingredients to make it yours, based on your own culinary style/tastes. Changing 2 or 3 ingredients in a recipes does not make it yours. When adapting, reference the author and site/book/link where you found the recipe. Put the intro/instructions into your own words.

'Inspired by' means there is no specific recipe. You tried a soup at a restaurant, liked it and created your OWN take on it."

On Copyright:

"Publishers can reproduce up to 3 blogger recipes to use in their book without permission because bloggers are in the media world. Once recipes are published they are considered public domain. Individual recipes cannot be copyrighted, but, groups of recipes (in books) can be copyrighted. The more individual the writing voice you use in your recipe, the intro, the ingredients and the instructions the more claim to copyright you have.

For the live blog notes from the `Copyright, Credit and Etiquette` seminar, check here.

And my favourite tweets from Lindsay (tweets condensed into paragraph):

"For recipe name, find a happy medium. Convey enough of what the dish is but don't name every single ingredient. A long ingredients list is daunting, if you can shorten and simplify, do so. At the same time, don't trick your reader into thinking a recipe is simple when it is not. Use commas carefully when writing ingredient lists in recipes - "noun, verb" - but be aware, "1 cup parsley, chopped" and "1 cup chopped parsley" are not the same. Your recipe instructions are where you can deliver a lot of voice and personality. When writing recipe instructions, give visual cues for done-ness, not just a range of time. Giving the 'why' of an action turns you into a friend in the kitchen (e.g. remove from heat to prevent scorching). When you test your recipes you know your readers will be successful and you know that they will trust you."

To read the live blog notes from the "Professional-Grade Recipe Development" seminar, check here.

I learned so much just from reading the #blogherfood tweets and from reading through the seminar live blog notes. There were a lot of things I had never considered before, like using a tripod in my photography. I already have a really great tripod but for some reason, I never bother to use it. Hopefully these tips will help improve my recipe writing and food photography so I can deliver a better blog. And... depending where BlogHerFood 2012 is held, I might have to look into attending!